Google Inc. received a patent on the use of drones to provide emergency medical service.
Patent 9,051,043, issued June 9, covers the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to provide emergency medical support. Google said the vehicles would be configured to provide support for a number of different situations.
A fleet of vehicles could be distributed within a city or other geographic area and configured for communication with remote devices like mobile phones, Google said. Medical support could be requested by a person in need of help or by others, Google said.
The drones could help a person who’s choking, Google said. They could aid a person in cardiac arrest or suffering from trauma. An illustrative medical support system could be configured so that the appropriate drone would be sent as needed.
Mountain View, California-based Google applied for the patent in December 2012, with the assistance of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP of Chicago.